Written Answers Tuesday 27 April 2010

Scottish Executive

Central Heating

Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-32145 by Alex Neil on 16 March 2010, whether it will provide the information in relation to enquirers eligible under section 6(3) of the Home Energy Assistance Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2009, as originally requested.

Alex Neil: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-32144 on 16 March 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

Central Heating

Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-32146 by Alex Neil on 16 March 2010, whether it will confirm that an enquirer to the Energy Assistance Package whose boiler provides an intermittent and unreliable service might have to wait until their central heating system has broken down completely before qualifying for Stage Four assistance.

Alex Neil: Under the Energy Assistance Package, it is possible to have an intermittently working or unreliable boiler replaced if the house has a SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure) rating of less than 55, provided the household is eligible by having lived in the dwelling for at least 12 months and by being either over 75, or in receipt of specified benefits and over 60, pregnant, with a child under five, or with a disabled child under 16. Someone with an intermittently working or unreliable boiler would have been excluded entirely from help under the old central heating programme.

Higher Education

Marlyn Glen (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many biomedical science bursaries to encourage students to work in the NHS after graduation have been awarded in 2009-10, broken down by institution.

Nicola Sturgeon: The following table shows how many bursaries were awarded to biomedical science students in 2009-10, broken down by institution:

  

Glasgow Caledonian University
74


Robert Gordon University
49


Abertay University
19


University of West of Scotland
10

Housing

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the national housing trust will provide a funding stream and, if so, for whom the funding will be available and from where it will be provided.

Alex Neil: The national housing trust (NHT) initiative itself will not provide any funding stream. Instead the NHT seeks to use a Scottish Government guarantee to local authorities in order to lever in investment in new affordable homes on mothballed sites from local authorities and the private sector.

  Participating local authorities and their private sector partners will jointly fund the purchase of homes through the NHT by Special Purpose Vehicles once the homes are built to an agreed standard. Rental income would then be used to repay interest during the rental period to local authorities and also to the private sector in relation to their loan note investment. At the time of sale of the homes, each local authority’s capital investment would be repaid, followed by repayment to the private sector partner of its loan note and, subject to the sale price of the homes, the private sector partner would also receive a return on its equity investment.

  A copy of the diagram showing the proposed structure for the NHT initiative has been placed in the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre (Bib. number 50748).

NHS Staff

Lewis Macdonald (Aberdeen Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many graduate nurses have taken up band 5 nursing posts with NHS Grampian in 2010-11.

Nicola Sturgeon: NHS Grampian has informed me that no newly-qualified graduates have been employed so far in this recruitment year. However, the recruitment year only started in April 2010 and as posts become available during the year, newly-qualified nurses will be able to apply for employment opportunities within NHS Grampian.

NHS Waiting Times

John Lamont (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the maximum waiting time is for an appointment with a consultant following an urgent referral by another consultant or a GP.

Nicola Sturgeon: The current maximum waiting time standard for an outpatient appointment following referral from another consultant or a GP is 12 weeks. Those patients who are referred urgently will of course be seen more quickly based on their clinical need.